Tadala Makuluni - Malawi

Tadala Makuluni comes from Lilongwe where she lives with her parents and five siblings. She graduated from Lilongwe University of Agriculture and Natural Resources with a bachelor’s degree in Forestry. While in school, she worked with the University’s forestry department conducting forest inventory and mapping. Currently, she is working with the governments’ department of forestry as an intern forest officer under the plantation section.

Tadala got into ADDA to learn how drones can be incorporated in natural resources management (specifically forestry management) and agriculture. She wants to explore this area because Malawi’s economy is highly dependent on agriculture and of late, the sector has been hit by adverse climate change effects. She also joined ADDA to learn how to collect and analyse data using drones.

“To me, innovative technology is a problem-solving tool, which is very important in a world full of new, emerging problems,” she says.

Tadala says all the skills and knowledge gained here will help her to come up with innovative solutions to solve forestry problems. “Fixing the environment is the same as creating a safety umbrella for communities and children. This umbrella provides safety both during the rainy and dry days. I would like to make my contribution to this process using technology and well-researched data,” she adds.

Tadala is looking forward to applying her skills in both private as well as government institutions. She looks forward to mixing technology and indigenous knowledge to protect the environment for her community and the children in it.